Might not be the best thread title, but certainly not a rant. Did you read the link? Added to the thread title a bit.
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I apologize to anyone taking this post as a rant. It was not meant to be I was simply having some fun with the title. But it is to the point. IDen for "now" is on it's way out. And this is the first time that I know of that anyone with Sprint has basically stated so.
About a year ago after Boost went national with the all you can eat for $50.00, they made an effort to get folks off the CDMA and on to the Iden side. Rumor then was that Boost was trying to do away with CDMA offering.
Then Boost started offering CDMA on the all you can eat, and the rumor was that Boost was trying to get folks off the Iden side onto the CDMA side.
Added to this are the rumor that Iden has been living on borrowed time due to the limitations of the system itself, and that it was looking like Sprint was not wanting to spend any money on it.
So, I thought that this would be interesting to anyone on Boost's IDen side.
Again, I apologize to anyone taking it wrong, but I said nothing negative about the service or company. I only basically posted a link to the article that is true. I did not even offer an opinion as to if this is good or bad.
And if you can't tell by my name, I'm a Boost Customer. I did just switch to the CDMA side, but only because it offered "more" for me.
So, you tell me, is Iden staying or going Bye. Bye?
Also if you check Howard Foums has picked up the story and it is the lead story on the front page of the web site (as of this a.m.). So is Howard Forums ranting, or reporting news?
Like I said IDen, goes Bye, Bye, Unless Sprint Change their mind.... And they may or may not do that. I'm sure the final decision will be based on income potential.
You just don't know what's going to happen. IDEN is a technology that I really don't think is ever going to go away 100%. Southern Linc does quite well with it, NII has a lucrative business overseas, MIRS in Israel uses it and Motorola has a huge interest in it's continuance.
It's the gold standard for public safety and first responders.
Iden IS on the way out. Boost iden helping with Sprint's "comeback" was just a stay of execution. With their base dwindling a million a quarter (and Sprint not lifting a finger to stop it or even slow it down) , it will be totally evaporated in two and a half years. Those are the numbers. Iden will stick around regionally and overseas but as a national network, unless someone buys out the Nextel portion of Sprint (not likely), it will be finished. But at least we get a head's up.
Wireless Customers
• The company served 48.8 million customers at the end of the third quarter of 2010. This
includes 33.1 million postpaid subscribers (26.6 million via the Sprint brand on CDMA, 6.1
million on iDEN, and 440,000 Power Source users who utilize both networks), 11.6 million
prepaid subscribers (7.1 million on CDMA and 4.5 million on iDEN) and approximately 4.1
million wholesale and affiliate subscribers, all of whom utilize our CDMA network.
• For the quarter, Sprint added a total of 644,000 net wireless customers including net
additions of approximately 364,000 retail subscribers and net additions of 280,000
wholesale and affiliate subscribers.
• Net postpaid subscriber losses of 107,000 during the quarter improved 87 percent yearover-
year and 53 percent sequentially. The company reduced net subscriber losses by
694,000 compared to third quarter of 2009 and 121,000 compared to second quarter of
2010.
• The CDMA network added approximately 276,000 postpaid customers during the quarter,
which includes net losses of 78,000 Nextel PowerSource customers. Excluding Nextel
PowerSource customer losses, the Sprint brand gained 354,000 total postpaid wireless
subscribers. The iDEN network lost more than 383,000 customers during the quarter.
• The company gained a net 471,000 prepaid subscribers during the quarter, which includes
net additions of almost 1.2 million prepaid CDMA customers, offset by net losses of
700,000 prepaid iDEN customers.
• The credit quality of Sprint’s end-of-period postpaid customers remained strong year-overyear
and sequentially at 84 percent prime.
P R E P A I D is just another way to offer (and pay for) premium services and devices.
10 million left. A million a quarter going. 10 quarters left. The countdown has begun. Two and a half years and there will be no Nextel/Boost iden users left.
My Wish is that NII Holdings or some other third party buy out Sprint's neglected Iden base and create a new Nextel/Nextel prepaid and let Sprint go on its own merry little cdma /4G way.
Iden users in South America actually INCREASED with another 300,000 adds last quarter.
If you ain't doing spit with it , sell it to someone who will appreciate it and has a vested interest in putting some work into it.
My Wish is that NII Holdings or some other third party buy out Sprint's neglected Iden base and create a new Nextel/Nextel prepaid and let Sprint go on its own merry little cdma /4G way.
Sprint just never gave enough of a damn.
EXACTLY!!! Don't kill it, just sell it. There are millions of wireless users out there that would love to have iDen service (with limited data services). The sad truth is Sprint does not know how to maximize it's ROI with this technology, while further developing its CDMA network. It's seems that there is no one that can walk & chew gum at the same time at Sprint. They should have continued to market the NEXTEL service as an independent entity much like they are doing with their multi brand Prepaid Services. The reason the prepaid iDEN losses are so high is simple, the $50 Monthly Unlimited plan offers Talk, Text, & Web and yet it under-delivers on the text & web sides. Sprint should re-brand just the Boost iDen service as a Boost Value option similar to the VM PayLo service and offer it as a $35 Unlimited Talk service that includes Direct Connect a "Boost Value Unlimited Service" with Boost iDEN Value Series Devices.
I was wrong. NII holdings (formerly Nextel International) added 436,000 subscribers in Q3. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE69P0J620101028
More then the number of Nextel US customers who left (about 300,000). Iden is dead in the US ? Only because Sprint is letting it die. NII proves that it isn't if you know what you're doing or give a rip. On another note, Mexico Nextel expects to go 3G in 18-24 months. With iden or not, Idk.
well boost fan it look like the iden system will stopping soon no date yet sprint is thinking about closing down the iden system i think its a bad i deal
This time it is probably for real because Sprint is too cheap to put money into the very network that began its "turnaround" (with Boost iden last year and Boost unlimited).
Sell the thing to Nextel International /NII Holdings already or maybe a buying group including Mike, Nextel Intl/NII and Southern Linc. Southern Linc says they're going to pull the plug in 2017.
Sprint is basically a stupidly run company running around with multiple everything, no consolidataion (look at how many prepaid brands they have) and just being a headless chicken (both Wimax and LTE). Those dunderheads don't know what they're doing and never will.
Sell the thing to Nextel International /NII Holdings already or maybe a buying group including Mike, Nextel Intl/NII and Southern Linc. Southern Linc says they're going to pull the plug in 2017. .
Hmmm.. And what will Southern do for their LMR needs?
Remember SL was built for one reason RADIO COMMUNICATIONS for Southern Companies, Alabama Power etc....
They elected to offer to the public to pick up some of the costs...
If they dump iDEN then they have to build a new network from SCRATCH thats a lot of $$$$ now or 2017... iDEN to P25 or EDACS (which is on life support as its is) or Open(does not work)Sky... not a lot of options here, and you loose some of the features of iDEN....
I understand that one possibility is that once there are not enough users on Sprint iden to make it commercially viable, it will be sold off to the US Govt . to use for DOD purposes and emergency national response, essentially going the reverse of Southern Linc (Public to private vs private to public).
In any case, iden if seen as a Radio com system has a lot lot of life left in it the cellular communications side of it has had a hard time keeping up with gsm and cdma , especially in the data and handsets depts.
I'd give iden anywhere from 2-7 more years at this rate of sub losses.
Whether a third party will buy it, the US govt will buy it or Sprint just kills it remains to be seen.
Hey, we're talking about Sprint here. They have no idea what they're doing and never have. Especially regarding ANYTHING iden, prepaid or postpaid.
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Originally Posted by fonezfonz
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